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Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

arstechnica.com

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Re: Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

#121

Post by zrobotics »

jitl wrote: post #65
Melatonic wrote: post #19

Windows 11 is also bloated as hell by default. Curuios how they compare to a very optimized and debloated windows 11? Anybody know if Steam and games in general refuse to install in Windows LTSC? Its basically the stripped down ultimate lean version of windows. Boots insanely fast - no tracking bullshit - no windows store or candy crush. Battery life hugely improved. No big updates - security only - and for a longer…

Microsoft is partnering with Asus to make the ROG Xbox Ally, which will run a stripped down Windows 11 that boots straight into the "Xbox" app, and you can switch to "desktop mode" much like how SteamOS / Steam Deck works. At least on Deck, it only boots the KDE desktop environment up when you switch to desktop mode so you aren't wasting resources on a windowing system you'll never see. It sounds like Microsoft is pl…

What's the advantage for a consumer here though? I honestly don't get the selling point of why I would want Win11 specifically on a handheld. The desktop UI sucks with a touchscreen, so having a windows vs a Linux desktop on the hardware doesn't seem like a difference. I get why MS wants to try to compete here, but I just don't get what they could possibly offer. I don't believe Win11 can be stripped down enough to compete on performance, currently I can't get a machine with 4GB of RAM and a SATA SSD to perform adequately with a web browser in Win11. The OS just consumes huge amounts of resources on stupid background tasks that can't be disabled without registry tweaks and the undefined behavior that comes with that.

Re: Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

#122

Post by 0x38B »

rendaw wrote: post #98
0x38B wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Side note, Niri is a fantastic WM. When I saw the Phoronix article on HN talking about the addition of overview mode and more, I finally took the plunge and spent an afternoon converting over from Sway.¹ Anecdotally, I've seen less hangups on Niri around fullscreen games and floating windows, perhaps thanks to X11 running in xwayland-satellite. 1: the hardest part was finding a bar that supported i3status-rs; not a f…

Steam won't launch for me in xwayland-satellite here... I just assumed steam+wayland = broken. I have a kind of weird setup using sway with xwayland disabled and running xwayland-satellite though.

Try running xwayland-satellite in another WM like Niri and see if it works there – for example, Gamescope didn’t work well on Sway, crashing as soon as Steam tried to spawn another window, but it’s working fine in Niri.

Re: Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

#123

Post by jitl »

zrobotics wrote: post #121
jitl wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is partnering with Asus to make the ROG Xbox Ally, which will run a stripped down Windows 11 that boots straight into the "Xbox" app, and you can switch to "desktop mode" much like how SteamOS / Steam Deck works. At least on Deck, it only boots the KDE desktop environment up when you switch to desktop mode so you aren't wasting resources on a windowing system you'll never see. It sounds like Microsoft is pl…

What's the advantage for a consumer here though? I honestly don't get the selling point of why I would want Win11 specifically on a handheld. The desktop UI sucks with a touchscreen, so having a windows vs a Linux desktop on the hardware doesn't seem like a difference. I get why MS wants to try to compete here, but I just don't get what they could possibly offer. I don't believe Win11 can be stripped down enough to c…

Idk I’m not a Microsoft enjoyer. I gave it a good shot with Surface Pro for a bit but it’s just not for me.

Re: Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

#124

Post by dwattttt »

cwillu wrote: post #80
jsolson wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those are already unstoppable because they now use Direct Memory Access over the PCI-E bus, so the cheats don't even run on the same computer anymore. Working on mostly server platforms, I had forgotten that IOMMU enablement (and, where relevant, enforcement) was not the default. Consumer hardware and software is terrifying.

Not sure how that's relevant, unless you find it terrifying that owners of hardware have control over their hardware.

It's your IOMMU, you can do what you want with it. Maybe you need to write heaps of stuff to take advantage of it, but what's new there?

The only thing you're getting by saying "no IOMMU" is "I want any devices in my machine to be able to do anything, not just what I want them restricted to".

Re: Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

#125

Post by preisschild »

nialv7 wrote: post #16
thewebguyd wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly enough, I've had games that had both a native Linux port and Windows version, and the Windows version through Proton ran better than the native Linux version. This ended up being true for Civ5, Civ6 and Cities Skylines (1). With those admittedly limited examples though, I don't experience the same ranking in performance, but I attribute that to my non-gaming hardware vs. any problem with Linux or Proton…

Linux port if there is one is usually done by a third party porting studio, which is not necessarily at the same quality as the original codebase. Also the devs just don't have the manpower/bandwidth to spare for Linux users given how small this community is. It's better value for money for both the gamers and the devs if the devs just choose to engage with valve and get their game running perfectly under proton.

> and get their game running perfectly under proton

Even better would be to compile for linux, but use DXVK-Native (https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk#dxvk-native) if you think migrating from DirectX to Vulkan requires too much effort.

Re: Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

#126

Post by preisschild »

umbra07 wrote: post #27
thewebguyd wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly enough, I've had games that had both a native Linux port and Windows version, and the Windows version through Proton ran better than the native Linux version. This ended up being true for Civ5, Civ6 and Cities Skylines (1). With those admittedly limited examples though, I don't experience the same ranking in performance, but I attribute that to my non-gaming hardware vs. any problem with Linux or Proton…

> Anyway, just my anecdotal experience. Those with dedicated gaming rigs will be more than fine with Linux, but those of us on underpowered hardware still seem better off with Windows, unfortunately. On the other hand, Linux (or more accurately, the Linux desktop ecosystem) doesn't support a lot of high-end PC gaming features well: HDR, Nvidia GPUs, VR, etc.

> On the other hand, Linux (or more accurately, the Linux desktop ecosystem) doesn't support a lot of high-end PC gaming features well: HDR, Nvidia GPUs, VR, etc.

> HDR

Already supported

> Nvidia GPUs

You have it the wrong way around. NVIDIA had issues supporting Linux, not Linux supporting NVIDIA. AMD drivers work fine, so its not a linux specific issue.

> VR

SteamVR works though?

Re: Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

#127

Post by preisschild »

jekwoooooe wrote: post #39

The last missing piece for full Linux gaming is anticheat. Last I looked into it, the major vendors don’t want to support it due to lack of kernel security and the ones that do, game devs refuse to allow it (destiny for example) One we can play AAA games I am literally ditching windows forever. Steamos is the best thing that has happened to gaming

AFAIK most anti cheats such as BattlEye actually work under Proton, but the Game Developers have to write to the Anticheat vendor that they want to opt-in into allowing Proton.

Re: Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

#128

Post by preisschild »

schmorptron wrote: post #114

i wonder how much of that is simply due to how incredible dxvk is. I think intel even uses it as part of their windows drivers to translate some older dx version games to vulkan because it performs so much better on their cards.

I wonder how much better DXVK-native (without wine) Games would work.

Re: Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

#129

Post by kookamamie »

Melatonic wrote: post #19

Windows 11 is also bloated as hell by default. Curuios how they compare to a very optimized and debloated windows 11? Anybody know if Steam and games in general refuse to install in Windows LTSC? Its basically the stripped down ultimate lean version of windows. Boots insanely fast - no tracking bullshit - no windows store or candy crush. Battery life hugely improved. No big updates - security only - and for a longer…

There are issues in Windows going beyond just added bloat. I don't think its kernel can compete or keep up with Linux's, as an example.

Re: Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

#130

Post by komali2 »

maxhille wrote: post #112
komali2 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nvidia support across the desktop ecosystem is poor, for example practically nonfunctional in Sway. And just buggy in other Wayland based desktop environments (kde seems to be the best in my experience).

WRT Nvidia+Sway this was certainly true not so long ago. But since the latest Ubuntu release and with a recent driver I am running this combo and it works flawlessly.

Really! I'm happy to hear it, I'll give it a try on my desktop this weekend. I would love to get all my machines on the same desktop environment once and for all.
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